Code: ASSIMILATE

"So it happened for you too? That's quite strange... he speaks, but no words can be heard. It's even stranger that Serenity somehow understands him."

Silver rambled to himself, almost forgetting he was talking to someone for the moment. Shaking his head, he sighed, trying to make sense of it but ultimately deciding it didn't need to be logical. Looking back up at Noon he paused before speaking.

"Maybe he has some sort of spell on him or something... I don't know much about magic, but there is something called 'Silence' right?"

"Yes, Silence does indeed prevent its victim from speaking." Noon replied.

Noon nodded, becoming silent for a moment, perhaps to think about something. And he did not speak for several minutes, although his expression clearly told that he was troubled by something. Then finally, after the long moment of silence, the instructor spoke again.

"But then, these wounds that I have makes no sense." Noon said, "You see, in addition to rendering the victim unable to speak, it also renders them unable to cast magic. And I had these injuries checked out a while ago, they said they were definetely sustained from some sort of magic."

"Hmm... I guess I could have DSoED check him out..."

There he went mumbling to himself again, as if forgetting that Noon was still there standing it front of him. Meanwhile, gears in the back of his mind were spinning, thinking about the bard the entire time. Maybe DSoED would know something about him or why he couldn't speak. Taking a mental note to ask the super computer later, he nodded to Noon with a smile, walking out the door as he spoke.

"I'm sure we'll find something out... anyway, thanks Noon, the lesson really helped."

"No problem, come again if you need any help or just some advice." Noon called out.

Noon nodded and waved goodbye to Silver, then returned to work on finishing the stacks upon stacks of paper.

And while Silver spent his time at the academy, Kuori had already talked to the recruiting soldiers. She was now waiting for her companion at the city gates along with four soldiers dressed in full suits of metal armor. Their helmets covered their face almost completely, leaving only the area below the nose revealed. Each of them also carried a spear, and although the craftsmanship is questionable, the pointed weapons seemed really effective at what they do, stabbing things.

"What's taking him so long?" Kuori asked, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently.

It took him a couple minutes of just strolling to realize he had kept his group waiting. Instantly taking off the second he realized Kuori was probably gonna skin him alive if he continued to take his time. Zipping past people, knocking things out of his way, he could have sworn he was flying. And maybe he was, who's to say he had gotten that advanced after his second lesson. It took a couple more minutes, but he finally reached Kuori and the others, bending over out of breath.

"So... sorry... I... I'm late."

"Yes, you are late. Now let's go, we'll fill you in on the way there."

And so the group sets off on their journey, with their transport being a horse-drawn supply carravan. They were heading toward the front lines in order to lend a hand against their opposition.

"So as far as I'm told, we are heading to a base camp near the front lines of this war against a kingdom called Altea. Our job is to reinforce and provide assistance to a small military regiment called the 31st Knight Division, or more commonly known as the Whitewings. Although, I was never informed of the reason behind this war." Kuori said.

"So we just knock a few heads off and Kee's forgiven... fine..."

Having been caught up with most of the information, Silver was quite laid back as to what they had to do. Of course for him it seemed no different than what he had been doing and what they would be doing for a while. No use to argue or whine or complain anymore, that's just how it would have to work out. Nodding his head in confirmation, he smiled slightly, this might be easier than he thought.

"Maybe, but I'm told that the Whitewings are very inexperienced in battle. According to the soldiers, they're a bunch of girls that 'can't hold a spear for five minutes without dropping it on someone's foot'." Kuori added, "I personally think they're overexaggerating a bit. But if those girls actually are as bad as they're made out to be, we're going to have some trouble. I don't know about you guys but I'm not confident in taking a whole army on with only a bunch of incompetent soldiers to back us up."

With that Kuori shifted her weight around, and then twitched. She ended up sitting right on top of the tip of a spear. Why the hell did they have to ride in the back of the caravan with all the supplies anyway?

Silver nodded, slightly ignoring Kuori and her complaining. This couldn't have been so bad, besides even if the soldiers were incompetent he was pretty sure they could handle the battle. After all, they two alone had taken on some pretty tough enemies and lived to tell the tale. They were chosen to save Eternal Dream after all, so what did it matter if they had help or not? Still smiling, he laid back only to have his back stabbed, a slight yelp resounding.

"Ow! Remind me why we have to sit back here if we're offering our services?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering that too." Kuori said, moving the spear that was poking at her butt away from her.

During this time, the bard named "Kee" had not said a thing, as usual. And he seemed to simply ignore everyone else as he played a soothing melody with his lute. It wasn't meant to do anything other than to calm himself down in order for him to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of sitting on a haystack.

"Relax a bit. Ignore the pain and uncomfortable feelings. Imagine yourself sitting on a nice fluffy pillow." Kee opened his mouth and "said" before realizing that the two complaining couldn't hear him anyway.

"I still can't believe Serenity gets to sit up front... I know she can heal towers, but what makes her so special?"

Silver scowled as yet another sharp weapon or something stabbed him in the back. Raising a finger and waving it to the other end, the spear that had stabbed him was slightly shifted so it stabbed the caravan. Ignoring the fact that Kee was "speaking" he continued to grumble, even more when the caravan hit a bump and the spear hit him again.

"If I remember correctly, before you came back we drew straws to decide on who sits up front. Serenity got lucky." Kuori answered, "So now we're stuck here."

After short but rather painful trip, the caravan cart came to an abrupt stop. They were now right outside the entrance of some sort of camp, with sandbags lined up all over the perimeter as a makeshift wall and several tents pitched up. Apparently this was the military camp they were supposed to help out at. There was even a stable, but in that stable there were no horses, instead each and every one of them were winged steeds with a pure white color, pegasi.

"So that's why they're called Whitewings." Kuori muttered to herself.

"Pegasi?"

Silver looked the stables up and down, a highly skeptical look on his face. Was it even possible? Or were these just horses that were attached with glue and make up? After seeing the soldiers, it could have been a pretty big possibility. Shaking his head, he guessed they would find out later on.

"Uh... what now?"

Kuori looked around the camp, which apparently really did consist of an entirely female army. So far, the android has not seen even one single person on this camp, save for Silver and Kee of course, that were male. She took some time to make note of the basic layout of the camp, just in case if she happened to get lost later.

"I'm not sure..." Kuori said in response to Silver, "I suppose we go and find whoever's in charge here."

"Then how are we supposed to find-"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help overhearing,"

A sweet sounding voice cut Silver off almost immediately after he started to complain. This resulted in Silver making a sharp turn to face the voice, only to find a girl roughly his height dressed in light armor. Another one of the soldiers obviously, but for some reason, this one seemed to have an air of difference from the others. Experience maybe?

"Lady Marcia, our commander, should be in her tent. It's the large one over there."

"Uh... okay..."

"I can take you over there if you'd like."

"Oh... are you sure-"

"It's not a problem."

Silver looked over to Kuori and Serenity for approval, a small weak smile on his face.

Kuori nodded, not seeing anything wrong with having someone to show them around a bit. In fact, it would be of a lot of help to Kuori, seeing how these tents almost all look the same and she, being an artifically created being, has no sense of direction at all in a new place like this.

Kee on the other hand, did not even wait for them and immediately headed toward the tent. It didn't matter if he was there or not, since no one besides Serenity will be able to even hear him anyway. He pulled open a flap and walked in, then was immediately greeted by footsteps coming from further back in the tent. And out stepped a young girl who seemed to be not much older than Kuori was. What's more, she was dripping wet, with a towel over her head drying her hair and wearing no clothes.

"Hey Caroline, I'm done with the shower. You can go ahead and use it now-" the girl said before abruptly stopping once she removed the towel obscuring her vision.

"I-I'm sorry!" Kee said, despite the fact that she wouldn't be able to hear him.

Kee immediately blushing when he saw the pink haired girl. And as the boy stared at the girl, he felt something trickle down his nose. Taking the back of his hand and wiping off some of the liquid that happened to be there, Kee was suprised to find it to be red. It was his blood, he was having a nosebleed. He looked back up at the girl to see her staring back at him, twithing slightly.

"EEEEEK! PERVERT! WHO LET A GUY IN HERE?!" the pink haired girl screamed as she reached for a conveniently placed spear resting on a weapon rack.

Before Kee realized what the girl was doing, he already found himself flying through the air outside the tent, the skidding across the dirt ground. Landing with several bad injuries, the boy bard was conscious on the ground for only less than a minute's time, before passing out.

"!"

The resounding crash from something being forcibly removed from somewhere caused Serenity to jump slightly. Looking around wildly as if the noise was only a small part of the disturbance. Silver too stopped while looking around himself, noticing several soldiers running in one direction.

"Oh no. Marcia... oh no..."

Caroline ran off in direction of the soldiers, leaving the rest of the party save Kee to follow.

"Uh..."

"Might as well go check it out." Kuori said and turned to run toward the direction everyone else seems to be going.

Kuori quickly arrived in front of a rather large and important-looking tent. And there she was faced with a sight that would make a normal person rather distrubed. Lying on his back on the ground was Kee, the boy bard that just joined them not long ago. He was cut up and bruised in a multitude of places, with blood stains on most of his body. Small pools of blood had began to form beneath the more severe cuts. The boy had passed out, either from the impact to the ground or from blood loss, and he was quickly being treated by medics.

"Okay, would someone explain to me why a guy is on our camp before I stab him through the gut?" a voice from within the tent called out.

"!"

As the rest of the group had followed the kind knight, the sight they came to was morbid. What first looked like a messenger or a guy, turned out to be Kee covered in blood and wound delivered by the person in the tent. The sight was enough to make one sick, but the rest of the party did not turn away, Serenity actually joining the medics seconds later.

The same could not be said for Silver, who had glanced at Kee for only a moment before glaring at the tent. The demanding voice from inside pissing him off more and more with each venomous word uttered.

"Hey! Who the hell do you-"

Moving away from the group he entered the tent immediately, only to have his eyes nearly pop out of his head. Inside was the commander, dressed in nothing more than a towel with a spear in hand.

"Uh... I... uh... he..."

At that point Caroline, having been keeping back the crowding soldiers outside rushed in. Quickly closing the space between the speechless Silver and the nearly nude commander. Pushing him back outside slightly, she kept her arm raised.

"Lady Marcia, these are the warriors that have agreed to lend us their services. I'm sorry I didn't inform you sooner milady."

Marcia glared at the boy who just entered the tent before having her line of sight blocked by one of, and probably the only, competent soldier under her command. She lowered her spear to a more relaxed position of holding it, instead of the previous "take one step forward and be impaled" stance.

"Still, fact of the matter is the boy out there barged in and saw me without clothes. So I had full right to beat him to the dirt." Marcia said, "Plus, can these people even fight? I have to say, I'm not very impressed with their performance so far. Seeing that the boy was knocked unconscious after six or so swings. And this boy here, he looks pretty scrawny himself as well."

"Hey I can fight!"

At that moment, the typical mana that Silver radiated flared up as it used to when he first came to the digital world. Except this time it was more violent, as if his stronger control allowed him to focus it into a menacing force. The essence itself changed almost instantly after flaring up, creating several embers that threatened to burn the tent. But before he could do anything Caroline nudged him again, causing the mana to dissipate.

"Lady Marcia-"

"And besides, that boy's not a physical fighter, he's a healer. He's not meant to take hits and be wounded he's meant to mend them! And another thing, he probably tried to speak to you, but strange world, he can't speak to just anyone for some reason! Guess you didn't think about that, did ya pinkie?"

Caroline nudged him again as he finished his little rant, he ignored her, moving her aside this time. Moving up to the almost naked commander, eyes fixated in a death glare.

"And if you're the so called commander, you should be grateful we came to help out. It's not like any of your soldiers save this one can actually fight!"

"The Whitewings are not required to possess excellent combat abilities. Most of the other soldiers happen to be horribly sexist, which is why they make us sound so bad. But the Whitewings, being a reconnaissance group that deals mostly with scouting and infiltration, are merely required to possess the basic ability to wield a spear and mount a pegasus." Marcia explained, "Either of which I highly doubt you can do."

The added comment there was to emphasize on how the boy'r frail structure made it seem that he wouldn't be able to last even one exchange of blows with her. The pink haired military commander turned toward her subordinate, her gaze softening as she did so. She sighed and shook her head before speaking.

"And Caroline, I heard reports from my higher ups that there were four people in total that were coming. Please bring the other two here for an evaluation." Marcia said, slightly displeased with her subordinate.

"Why I-"

"Yes milady..."

She quickly stepped outside, grabbing the other two as she pushed her way past the crowd and moving back in. Serenity kept looking back at the entrance to the tent, a look of utmost worry set on her face. She was not pleased with the fact that Kee was injured and she wasn't able to help. However, she turned to face the commander of the pegasus mounting group. Her expression, however, remained constant and she yearned to go back out to the medics to help.

"Will you be needing anything else milady?"

"Hey!"

Kuori was suddenly dragged by the female soldier they met earlier into the tent that Silver just barged into, to find a pink-haired girl holding a spear and wearing nothing except a white towel wrapped around her. Kuori of course, as a girl, and an artificially created one at that, was not fazed by this sight at the slightest, but she could see now how Kee and Silver may have angered this girl. Although, Kuori wondered if this was actually the commander of this military force. That would be very suprising, considering that she seemed to be only a year, maybe even less, or so older.

"My name is Kuori, and you are?" Kuori asked.

"Marcia, captain of the Whitewings." Marcia replied.

"I'm impressed, you're a captain of a military force at such a young age." Kuori said, a smile on her face.

"No no, it's not that great. You seem like you're pretty strong, unlike your friends there." Marcia said then turning toward her sub-commander, "Anyway, Caroline, I you can go use the shower now. And when you get out I want you to take two of our fliers and along with yourself take to the skies. I'm going to see first hand how well those two wimps here can fight before giving my approval."

Marcia then turned her head back to Silver, her eyes narrowing again and her mouth opening wide as if to give out a command.

"Now for the rest of you, GET OUT SO I CAN CHANGE!"

Silver threw a handful of deathglares at the commander before exiting the tent, quite pleased with the fact that he was able to get out without pushing. The crowd had dispersed and Kee was left with only a couple healers. Serenity followed suit, happy to be out of the tent and back to a place where she could actually be of use. Instantly kneeling before the passed out bard and tending one of his wounds, Silver was left to watch and wait for the bard to get patched up and wake up.

"Come on already..."